Strangely, Monday afternoon my left ankle was a bit sore. So much so that I wasn’t sure whether I could do my planned turbo in the garage Monday night. I decided to go ahead and did an hour on a light resistance but moderately high cadence (90-95). Tuesday the ankle was still sore and stiff but the more I walked on it the less it affected me.
I was woken in the night on Tuesday night / Wednesday morning by a very very very sore ankle. It was so sore I had to crawl on all fours to the toilet and medicine cabinet and then could not get back to sleep. To make it worse The Wife awoke and saw me crawling across the bedroom floor on all fours like a burglar leading to an interogation of my actions. Once in bed my constant movement kept The Wife awake, not a good idea. Just like you don’t wake a hibernating bear you take your life in your hands if you wake The Wife when she is asleep.
Wednesday morning I couldn’t walk and I was in casualty at Kingston hospital at just after 08:00 am. Fortunately the bus stops outside our house and outside the hospital but even that seemed a marathon to me. After being kept waiting four hours to meet the NHS target time in an almost empty waiting room, I had an x-ray and saw a doctor. He said he could see the recent break of the foot (playing squash in November) which had healed but could not see a break in the ankle and diagnosed tenosynovitis for which he prescribed strong anti-inflammatory drugs (which had to be collected from the hospital pharmacy, another marathon journey from A&E). I went home just after 14:00 PM on the bus on crutches with instructions to not exercise for two weeks, to rest the ankle, and to not operate heavy machinery whilst taking the drugs.
Strangely they took a £10 deposit off me at the hospital for the crutches, but research on the web reveals the same crutches retail at £9.99 including next day delivery. Now assuming the NHS (or Kingston Hospital Trust) can get a bulk discount I can see that they make quite a lot of money from crutches not returned. Mine will definitely be being returned denying the hospital trust some income from this stealth tax.Today the ankle is much better, so much so that I came to work (late admittedly to miss the rush hour), but my head is all fuzzy and my concentration down the drain. Fortunately my job doesn’t entail operating heavy machinery.
Steve wins the stage comfortably and with only 3 weeks left he will take some beating for the GC. Mike put in another strong climbing performance to move up to 2nd overall in the KoM competition and is now just 15 miles behind Justin in the chase for a podium position on GC.
Keep going guys.
Mini Stava Challenge
| |||||
Week 9 - Monday 25/2/13 - Sunday 3/3/13
| |||||
Name
|
No. of Rides
|
Miles Ridden
|
Climbing (ft)
|
Ranking - Miles
|
Ranking - KoM
|
Steve W
|
6
|
144.0
|
7,224
|
1
|
1
|
Mike R
|
2
|
90.6
|
5,780
|
2
|
2
|
Justin C
|
1
|
61.6
|
2,568
|
3
|
5
|
David C
|
1
|
61.4
|
2,490
|
4
|
6
|
Michael C
|
2
|
57.8
|
3,514
|
5
|
4
|
Craig S
|
1
|
48.2
|
3,992
|
6
|
3
|
Duncan S
|
0
|
0.0
|
0
|
8=
|
8=
|
Jon S
|
0
|
0.0
|
0
|
8=
|
8=
|
463.6
|
25568.0
| ||||
Mini Stava Challenge
| |||||
Totals
| |||||
Name
|
No. of Rides
|
Miles Ridden
|
Climbing (ft)
|
Ranking - Miles
|
Ranking - KoM
|
Steve W
|
42
|
897.7
|
45,055
|
1
|
1
|
David C
|
14
|
669.6
|
28,430
|
2
|
3
|
Justin C
|
16
|
533.5
|
24,261
|
3
|
4
|
Mike R
|
13
|
518.2
|
31,067
|
4
|
2
|
Duncan S
|
10
|
302.2
|
17,724
|
5
|
6
|
Michael C
|
14
|
287.6
|
16,157
|
6
|
7
|
Craig S
|
6
|
206.2
|
18,128
|
7
|
5
|
Jon S
|
3
|
202.0
|
13,932
|
8
|
8
|
3617.0
|
194754.0
|
